


Oh, This Precious Time

by RandomReader13



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Angst, Bat Family, Batdad, Batfamily Bonding, Batfamily Feels, Batfamily Fluff, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Cass is Bruce's favorite, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, It's a good one, Parent-Child Relationship, Platonic Cuddling, Pranks, Tim is there for like, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, and I love it, don't even try to deny it we all know it's true, fight me dc, half a second, kudos to audrycritter for that tag lol, ok tiny tiny hint of, reclaiming platonic affection from the hellpit of toxic masculinity, shameless fluff, she's his princess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 17:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20604728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomReader13/pseuds/RandomReader13
Summary: Drabbles with Bruce and Cass





	Oh, This Precious Time

**Author's Note:**

> I finally caved and got a Tumblr y'all (I obviously have incredible timing). You can find me at theawkwardvirgin. I haven't posted much yet (I've only had it for like 2 days), but it's going to be mostly batfam stuff and I'd love to talk with you all!

Bruce smiled as he entered the living room and saw Cass. She was sitting on the couch, legs crossed and brow furrowed in concentration. “Hi Cassie,” he said softly, sitting next to her. She waved him off, not looking up from the book.

“Hush. Reading.”

“I can see that.”

She flicked him in the arm. Bruce chuckled but didn’t say anything more, content to lean back and shut his eyes. He wasn’t getting any younger, and the long nights wore on him more as time went on. He was dozing lightly when a finger jabbed his thigh. He cracked one eye open. Cass was glowering at him.

“Word,” she said, holding up the book and jabbing a finger at it. Bruce blinked a few times and squinted at the page.

“Brick? You know what a brick is.”

Cass scowled harder. “Why call...brick? Not brick. Girl!”

Bruce scanned the sentence. “It’s an expression, Cassie. He’s saying she’s trustworthy, strong like a brick. People don’t say it anymore, this is an old book.”

Cass huffed. “Why not call strong?”

Bruce struggled for a moment before shrugging. “It’s slang. Like when Tim says something is cool.”

Cass grumbled but went back to the book. A minute later she poked him again. “Say ‘still’?”

“Still could mean both not moving and quiet,” he said, not opening his eyes. She growled in frustration.

Bruce was actually drifting off to sleep when something hard was shoved into his stomach. He wheezed a little in surprise, eyes flying open. Cass scootched closer and grabbed his arm, wrapping it around herself. “Read.”

He tried not to laugh. “You’re supposed to be practicing, Cassie.”

“Did!” She flicked through the pages. “Ten!”

Bruce pretended to think about it. She poked his cheek. “Alright, alright,” he said, smiling as he pushed her hand away. “You read a lot by yourself.”

“Yes.” She pointed at a sentence. “Now you.”

Bruce settled his arm around her a little more firmly and cleared his throat. “‘Violet looked at her older sister. She thought she knew why Jess took the crust, but she did not speak….’”

* * *

Batman’s landing was almost silent but the figure sitting on the edge of the building tilted her head to the side in acknowledgment anyway. Bruce sat next to her, staring out at the lights and honking cars.

“It’s not your fault,” he said finally.

Cass didn’t look at him, the expressionless mask giving away even less than his cowl.

“You did everything right.”

No noise but the clamor of the city and the whistling of the wind, almost a constant this high up.

“Cass-”

“If everything right...not happen,” she said.

Bruce sighed. “You know it doesn’t always work that way.”

“Yes,” she insisted, voice getting louder. “What we do! Do right. Protect.”

“We’re still human.” He had tried to get past that, tried to become something more than human, and to the criminals of Gotham he was. But Bruce had realized, through painful experience, that it didn’t work with family.

“Better. Supposed to be better.”

He glanced around the roof. No one to see, this high up. He pulled off the cowl and turned to her. “Cassie.”

Black Bat pulled off her mask in one sharp motion. Bruce barely got a glimpse of Cass’ red eyes before she closed the foot of space between them and slumped against his side.

“Failed,” she whispered.

“No.” He wrapped his cape tighter around her. “You did everything you could.”

* * *

Bruce was going over reports for Wayne Enterprises when Cass burst into his study. He glanced up at her, no longer surprised by such interruptions, and raised an eyebrow. Cass’ eyes gleamed mischievously as she darted around his desk and crouched down, shoving his legs to the side so she could fit under the desk. Bruce sighed and went back to his report, making a note to discuss clause 37 with Lucius. He was utterly unsurprised when Tim came barging into the room, eyes wild and glittering as he moved. To be clear, his whole self was glittering. Bruce resisted the urge to slam his head into the desk.

“Tim.”

“Bruce!” Tim’s chest was heaving. “Have you seen Cass?”

A finger poked his foot. “I’m afraid not.” Bruce poked back with his toe.

Tim cursed. “She did _ this_”, he gestured wildly at himself, “and I’m meeting up with Ives at the arcade in half an hour-”

“Language, Timothy.” Bruce glanced at the clock. “That doesn’t give you much time to...freshen up; I’d get started on that if I were you.”

Tim stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowed. Finally he huffed and turned on his heel. “You’re a filthy liar, Bruce! And you play favorites!” he yelled over his shoulder as he stomped out. Bruce stared at the glitter on the carpet. He pushed his chair back a little, looking down. A pair of dark eyes twinkled at him.

“I don’t even want to know where you got that much glitter,” he informed her gravely, “but I’m not hiding you from Alfred.”

* * *

Bruce stared at the french fry held in front of his nose. “That’s not exactly doctor-approved,” he said. The fry booped him on the nose. He looked above it to Cass, who was hovering over him. He informed her of this fact. It might have had something to do with the morphine being pumped into him.

“Not hovering,” she said, redirecting her fry attack to his mouth. “Sitting.” Before he could point out that she was definitely not sitting, she hooked her foot around a chair and dragged it over.

“That’s cheating.”

She smiled a little. “Eat.”

Bruce ate the fry. Cass immediately reached under her jacket and pulled out another one. “Alfred will not be happy-” He cut off as the fry was shoved into his mouth. He scowled at her as he chewed.

“Need it. Fry makes happy guy,” she said carefully. Bruce rolled his eyes.

“Just because Dick says that doesn’t make it true.”

“Dick very happy,” she said solemnly, shoving another fry in his face. “You too. Also salt. Salt good.”

“Salt can be very bad for you, especially when it is paired with a deep-fryer.”

“Too much talk.” She settled back in her chair, pulling out a book. Bruce wasn’t sure where she got it from. That was probably the morphine too. “Will read.” She popped a fry into her mouth.

“I thought those were for me.”

“Sharing is caring.”

Bruce huffed a laugh. “What are we reading?”

“Seuss!” Bruce smiled. Cass had become enamored with the colorful pictures and rhyming of Dr. Seuss books, and it helped with her reading comprehension as well.

“Which one?”

“Places you’ll go.”

Bruce rolled his head to the side to look at her, that soft smile still hovering around the corners of his mouth. “Are you ready to go, Cassie?”

She nodded, leaning over to shove another fry at him before opening the book. “Con-gra-tu-la-tions! To-day is your...day.”

* * *

Bruce woke to a cold little body burrowing its way into his bed. He cracked one eye open. “Cassie,” he sighed. The stripe of moonlight that made it past the curtains showed her wild hair and red eyes. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. “What’s wrong?”

“Dream,” she said, pushing her head into his chest. “Cain.”

He squeezed her tightly. “He can’t get you, Cassie. You’re safe here.”

He could feel her shoulders loosening, her body sagging into the bed. “Yes,” she said, so softly he almost missed it. “Safe here.”

Bruce watched her eyes slowly close and her breathing even out. His heart caught in his chest. She trusted him so much, this precious girl. She had been hurt so much by the world and yet here she was, living and loving with everything she had. He didn’t deserve her, but he would do his damned best to make her happy. He kissed the top of her head and let his own eyes slide shut.


End file.
